Counting of 7 Assembly seats to take place in Rajouri
*BJP supporters say they miss party candidate
*Booths across fencing record 77, 70 pc turnout without any fear
Sanjeev Pargal
RAJOURI/POONCH, May 25: Twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch upheld the tradition of brisk voting recording 69.35 and 68.91 percent turnout as they went to polls for the first time as part of Anantnag – Rajouri Parliamentary constituency. Till 2019, the two districts were linked with Jammu constituency but after realignment of boundaries by the Delimitation Commission, their seven out of eight Assembly Lok Sabha seat were included in South Kashmir segment.
Officials told the Excelsior that Rajouri district recorded 69.35 percent polling (tentative) as against 65.73 percent in 2019, an increase of nearly four percent while Poonch district registered 68.91 percent voting as compared to 70.42 percent in 2019, a decline of nearly two percent.
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Deputy Commissioner Rajouri OP Bhagat told the Excelsior that two Polling Stations located across the fencing on the Line of Control (LoC) recorded brisk voting. One of them Khamba-A accounted for 77.34 percent polling while Bhawani A had 70.85 percent turnout. At both these Polling Stations, the voting went off peacefully amidst tight security arrangements, he added.
Counting for seven Assembly segments of Rajouri and Poonch districts will be held at Rajouri on June 4 while that of 11 constituencies of South Kashmir will take place in Anantnag. The EVMs from Rajouri will reach the strong room tonight and from Nowshera by tomorrow morning. EVMs from Poonch district will reach Rajouri either by tomorrow or day after tomorrow and will be kept in the strong rooms. Locally, strong rooms have been created for keeping the EVMs for tonight from where it is not possible to transport them by tonight.
Four Assembly constituencies of Rajouri districts, which are part of Anantnag-Rajouri constituency, accounted for 69.35 percent turnout (tentative) including Budhal (69.48), Nowshera (68.90), Rajouri (69.63) and Thannamandi (69.35). Fifth Assembly segment of the district (Sunderbani-Kalakote) is part of Jammu Parliamentary seat while Thannamandi is the newly created segment. Darhal seat has now been renamed as Budhal.
In Poonch district, Mendhar Assembly seat topped with 70.68 percent turnout followed by Surankote 68.98 percent and Poonch-Haveli 67.35 percent.
However, as per the officials, figures of both Rajouri and Poonch districts are tentative and could slightly go up.
Barring an incident at Mendhar in which six persons were injured, polling was entirely peaceful in Rajouri and Poonch districts where couple of terror incidents took place ahead of the voting in which an IAF jawan and a Government official (brother of Territorial Army soldier) sacrificed their lives and five jawans were injured.
There was no report of any terror incident from any part of the two districts.
However, six persons including four women suffered minor injuries in a clash between supporters of two candidates outside a Polling Station in Mendhar sub-division of Poonch district.
But the voting at the Polling Station in the Shahpur sector continued without any disruption as police intervened and separated the clashing groups.
An FIR was registered by police and further investigation is on, the officials said.
“It is hereby clarified that a minor scuffle took place outside the Polling Station causing very minor injuries to a few persons. The altercation was stopped in time and an FIR has been lodged in the matter. Polling did not get interrupted at any time and went on smoothly,” the office of Deputy Commissioner, Poonch, said on X.
BJP president Ravinder Raina exercised his franchise in his home constituency of Nowshera, which he won in 2014 Assembly elections, in Rajouri district and thanked the voters for turning up in large numbers to strengthen democracy in the Union Territory.
“This is the festival of democracy and we are thankful to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for turning up in record-breaking numbers to exercise their franchise for the election of new Government,” Raina told reporters after casting his vote at Lamberi East Polling Station in Rajouri.
Referring to the voter turnout in the past four phases, especially in Kashmir, the BJP leader in the morning said: “I am hopeful that the people in Anantnag-Rajouri Lok Sabha seat will follow suit and vote in a bumper way.”
Meanwhile, the BJP supporters missed a party candidate from the constituency but said they have voted for a candidate who is being supported by the national party.
“It would have been better if we had our own candidate from the seat. But since the BJP decided to support a candidate from a regional party, we faced no difficulty in casting our vote,” said BJP worker Sham Lal of Nowshera.
Meanwhile, Jammu Divisional Commissioner Ramesh Kumar and Jammu Additional Director General of Police Anand Jain conducted a tour of Rajouri district to personally monitor the conduct of the elections. They visited various Polling Stations across the poll bound areas of Rajouri to monitor the polling process, said an official.
Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency in Jammu province was the first to go to polls on April 19, registering 68 per cent turnout in the first major electoral battle since the abrogation of Article 370, sealing the fate of Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh who is seeking a third term from the seat.
The polling in Jammu Parliamentary constituency in the second phase on April 26 recorded a turnout of 69.01 per cent which is the highest so far in Jammu and Kashmir in this general election followed by Srinagar in the fourth phase on May 13 with a poll turnout of 38 per cent which is the second highest in past three decades.
Baramulla Parliamentary constituency, from where the National Conference has fielded its vice president and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, registered an all time high voter turnout of 58.17 in last four decades.
Assembly Voting Voting segment %age 2019 %age 2024
Nowshera 72.70 68.90
Budhal 63.60 69.48
Rajouri 66.51 69.63
Thannamandi 59.50 69.35
Kalakote 59.50 —
Rajouri district 65.73 69.35 (Tentative)
Surankote 77.38 68.98
Mendhar 76.46 70.68
Poonch-Haveli 54.49 67.35
Poonch district 70.42 68.91 (Tentative)
*Thannamandi is newly created Assembly seat after delimitation while Sunderbani-Kalakote segment has now been included in Jammu Parliamentary constituency.
The Election Commission of India (ECI) today released absolute number of votes polled for five phases. Number of votes polled in five seats of J&K and Ladakh where polling process has been completed till May 20 have also been released.
Srinagar: Voters: 1747810 Votes: 672653
Baramulla: Voters: 1737865 Votes: 1027084
Ladakh: Voters: 184808 Votes: 132727
Udhampur: Voters: 1623195 Votes: 1108206
Jammu: Voters: 1780835 Votes: 1286144
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